Red-cockaded woodpecker makes comeback in Louisiana
Biologists track rare bird’s recovery in Kisatchie National Forest after decades on endangered species list
VERNON PARISH, La. (InvestigateTV) —The red-cockaded woodpecker, which lived on the edge of extinction for more than four decades, is making a comeback in central Louisiana’s Kisatchie National Forest.
Biologists have been tracking the small woodpeckers for years, finding their nests dozens of feet above the ground in the trunks of tall longleaf pines. They use cameras to peek inside the cavities and tag young chicks to monitor their movements.
“She’s in the cavity. There’s, oh wow, there’s the two chicks there and look at about seven days old,” Matt Pardue, a biologist, said as he examined a nest 25 feet above the ground.
Tagging helps track birds’ movements
The biologists carefully extract chicks from their nests for tagging, using specialized equipment.
The tiny plastic tags are color-coded so the birds’ movements can be tracked from a distance with binoculars.
Jason Nolde, a biologist, said they have tracked the birds’ movements as far as a couple of hundred miles.
Species recovery after endangered listing
The federal government reported that the red-cockaded woodpecker was on the brink of extinction in the 1970s when it was placed on the endangered species list.
The bird’s habitat was disappearing as trees were cut for timber, agriculture and development.
Fifty years of forest conservation efforts are now paying off.
There are now five times as many clusters of these woodpeckers compared with the 1970s. In 2024, the bird was downlisted from endangered to threatened.
“The red-cockaded woodpecker is an indicator that we’re doing what we need to do with longleaf ‘cause that’s their preferred pine,” Nolde said.
Christian Cobb, a biologist leading the tagging efforts, noted that the parent birds stay nearby during the process but don’t interfere.
“They make a lot of noise and kinda act like they’re gonna do something, but they never get close to you,” he said.
The healthy longleaf pine forests provide the insects the woodpeckers need to feed their young.
“That tree is healthy, it’s gonna have bugs, so the healthier they are, the healthier that population’s gonna be,” Nolde said.
See the full story by Dave McNamara here.
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